Don Incognito
First Post
While developing the backstory for my character, I eventually came to the conclusion that the organization it involved was complicated enough that it warranted a straight-forward proposal.
There is a place within the Valley of Bones that truly lives up to its name. An enormous skull rests upon a cliff face, and a river runs through its right eye, giving the illusion that the skull is crying. A small group, calling themselves the Society of Sorrow, built their compound (mostly centered around the main temple known as the Coronach) at the edge of the skull, studying it. In time, the society grew to house hundreds of members within its grounds. Although the Society keeps meticulous records, a fire some years ago destroyed much of their history, so no one truly knows how long the society has existed or why it was first founded.
What IS known is that the skull itself has some echo of sentience; through various esoteric rituals one can communicate with the skull, or even forge pacts with it. The most famous of these rituals is colloquially called "The Bath". A mixture of herbs and necrogenic acids is placed into a vat of boiling water, and a new initiate soaks in the chemicals for an hour and a day. The skull will not grant its power to those who do not go through this rite, so it is performed almost exclusively on new initiates. An unfortunate side effect of The Bath is that it removes all body hair and prevents any further hair from growing (as a result, there are almost no dwarves in the society). The Society also is known to take in orphans, so many local tribes (save dwarves) have been known to dump unwanted children there. The temple stresses physical prowess as much as arcane knowledge, so the scholars hunt and farm and practice their swordplay as well as debate and study.
There were two main schools of thought within The Coronach. The first is that the skull is simply a large untapped power source of unknown origin, and that therefor there is no right or wrong way to go about studying it. Scholars perform experiments, teach classes, or even simply live near the temple, tapping into the power that eminates from it. The second school believes that the skull is all that remains of a fallen deity, and that it demands proper worship. Meditation, fasting, and self-flagellation are not uncommon forms of praying to the one they call "Mourner".
The two schools had relative peace within the temple for some time, until somewhat recently. The chief of the temple, a wise old man named Jeremiad, was slain by the radical leader of the second school, a tiefling named Lament. Lament and his followers believe that the skull is nothing less than the source of any and all arcane power, that all those practice arcane or ritual magic who do not venerate it are heretics, and should therefor be put to death. He and his followers staged a bloody coup within the Coronach, slaying those who would not swear a blood oath to forever revere the skull as the one, true deity.
The coup was five years ago. Now, emissaries from the Coronach have appeared in the ports of Bacarte and Daunton, preaching that all those who study the arcane arts MUST obey the power of the Mourner or face serious consequences. If such threats have been followed through, none can say.
Note: All members of the temple are warlocks with a martial multi-class, and they all have sorrow or funeral related names. Good suggestions are Requiem, Eulogy, Epitaph, Elegy, Burial, Cremate, Entomb, Obituary, Sepulture, Agony, Anguish, and Repine
Well, that's it. Hope it fits into the setting well enough to get approved.
There is a place within the Valley of Bones that truly lives up to its name. An enormous skull rests upon a cliff face, and a river runs through its right eye, giving the illusion that the skull is crying. A small group, calling themselves the Society of Sorrow, built their compound (mostly centered around the main temple known as the Coronach) at the edge of the skull, studying it. In time, the society grew to house hundreds of members within its grounds. Although the Society keeps meticulous records, a fire some years ago destroyed much of their history, so no one truly knows how long the society has existed or why it was first founded.
What IS known is that the skull itself has some echo of sentience; through various esoteric rituals one can communicate with the skull, or even forge pacts with it. The most famous of these rituals is colloquially called "The Bath". A mixture of herbs and necrogenic acids is placed into a vat of boiling water, and a new initiate soaks in the chemicals for an hour and a day. The skull will not grant its power to those who do not go through this rite, so it is performed almost exclusively on new initiates. An unfortunate side effect of The Bath is that it removes all body hair and prevents any further hair from growing (as a result, there are almost no dwarves in the society). The Society also is known to take in orphans, so many local tribes (save dwarves) have been known to dump unwanted children there. The temple stresses physical prowess as much as arcane knowledge, so the scholars hunt and farm and practice their swordplay as well as debate and study.
There were two main schools of thought within The Coronach. The first is that the skull is simply a large untapped power source of unknown origin, and that therefor there is no right or wrong way to go about studying it. Scholars perform experiments, teach classes, or even simply live near the temple, tapping into the power that eminates from it. The second school believes that the skull is all that remains of a fallen deity, and that it demands proper worship. Meditation, fasting, and self-flagellation are not uncommon forms of praying to the one they call "Mourner".
The two schools had relative peace within the temple for some time, until somewhat recently. The chief of the temple, a wise old man named Jeremiad, was slain by the radical leader of the second school, a tiefling named Lament. Lament and his followers believe that the skull is nothing less than the source of any and all arcane power, that all those practice arcane or ritual magic who do not venerate it are heretics, and should therefor be put to death. He and his followers staged a bloody coup within the Coronach, slaying those who would not swear a blood oath to forever revere the skull as the one, true deity.
The coup was five years ago. Now, emissaries from the Coronach have appeared in the ports of Bacarte and Daunton, preaching that all those who study the arcane arts MUST obey the power of the Mourner or face serious consequences. If such threats have been followed through, none can say.
Note: All members of the temple are warlocks with a martial multi-class, and they all have sorrow or funeral related names. Good suggestions are Requiem, Eulogy, Epitaph, Elegy, Burial, Cremate, Entomb, Obituary, Sepulture, Agony, Anguish, and Repine
Well, that's it. Hope it fits into the setting well enough to get approved.
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